[meteorite-list] Dawn Spirals Closer to Ceres, Returns a New View

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 28 May 2015 17:06:27 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201505290006.t4T06Rji021993_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4605

Dawn Spirals Closer to Ceres, Returns a New View
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
May 28, 2015

A new view of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 23, shows
finer detail is becoming visible on the dwarf planet. The spacecraft snapped
the image at a distance of 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) with a resolution
of 1,600 feet (480 meters) per pixel. The image is part of a sequence
taken for navigational purposes.

Image is available at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19065

After transmitting these images to Earth on May 23, Dawn resumed ion-thrusting
toward its second mapping orbit. On June 3, Dawn will enter this orbit
and spend the rest of the month observing Ceres from 2,700 miles (4,400
kilometers) above the surface. Each orbit during this time will be about
three days, allowing the spacecraft to conduct an intensive study of Ceres.

Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit
two distinct solar system targets. It studied the protoplanet Vesta for
14 months in 2011 and 2012, and arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015.

Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate
in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program,
managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc.,
in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace
Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space
Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international
partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants,
visit:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission

More information about Dawn is available at the following sites:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.nasa.gov/dawn


Media Contact

Elizabeth Landau/Preston Dyches
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6425/354-7013
elizabeth.landau at jpl.nasa.gov/preston.dyches at jpl.nasa.gov

2015-185
Received on Thu 28 May 2015 08:06:27 PM PDT